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Full-Text Articles in Military, War, and Peace
The Weaponization Of Rape: Conflict-Related Rape And The International Criminal Court, Claire Velte
The Weaponization Of Rape: Conflict-Related Rape And The International Criminal Court, Claire Velte
International Relations Honors Papers
Conflict-related rape—once thought to be an inevitable symptom of war—has been legally recognized as both a distinct weapon of war and a crime against humanity, yet it continues to be utilized with impunity. To understand why combatants rape, this paper examines the aspects of military culture that create environments in which raping is not only permissible, but encouraged; additionally, this paper considers cases of genocide in Bosnia and Rwanda in which rape was used systematically to achieve political goals, and how these conflicts contributed to new conceptions of rape in international criminal law. These new conceptions of conflict-related rape created …
The Weaponization Of Rape: Military Culture, Tactical Warfare, And Legal Justice, Claire Velte
The Weaponization Of Rape: Military Culture, Tactical Warfare, And Legal Justice, Claire Velte
International Relations Summer Fellows
The long-accepted narrative of wartime rape is one of inevitability, with sexual violence committed at the hands of soldiers during conflict being written off as an unavoidable side-effect of war. In reality, however, wartime rape can be systematically and tactically employed by military forces to terrorize the bodies of their enemies, often as an attempt to physically and psychologically destroy certain populations. The act itself, when employed tactically, is legally recognized as a weapon of war—and the rape of civilians by military forces was legally designated as a crime against humanity in 1993—yet rape continues to be utilized in conflict …